Qatar state fund invests in Israeli-founded cybersecurity start-up
Israeli American cybersecurity start-up Snyk announced that it raised $196.5M from investors in a fundraising round at a lower company valuation of $7.4 billion.
What's interesting is that among the investors in the company in the latest round was the Qatar Investment Authority (Qatar's sovereign wealth fund). Considering that Israel and Qatar have no diplomatic relationships, this development signals a potential change in the Muslim nation's perception of Israel.
Mansoor Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, the CEO of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) said, “QIA is delighted to lead this round to drive the further growth of Snyk, the established leader in developer security. We’re confident that Snyk’s proven approach and offerings, efficient financial growth and seasoned executive team, position the company for a successful future and is aligned with QIA’s track record of supporting innovative companies shaping the future of the global economy.”
In addition to Qataris and current investors Sands Capital, Tiger Global, Boldstart Ventures, there were also new participants such as Evolution Equity Partners, G Squared, and Irving Investors. Back in September of the last year when company had its previous funding round, Snyk raised capital at a valuation of $8.5B.
The CEO of Snyk Peter McKay said, “In 2022, I’m proud that we achieved a 100% year-over-year increase in revenue as well as net revenue retention of over 130%. In this challenging macroeconomic environment, it is more critical than ever for global enterprises to increase their developer productivity and be able to continue their pace of innovation securely. In 2023, we look forward to leveraging this latest investment to continue enhancing our platform.”
Snyk was founded in 2015 by a group of graduates from the elite intelligence unit 8200 - Guy Podjarny, Assaf Hefetz, and Danny Grander. The company specialises in assisting software developers and organisations in integrating security solutions into their workflows as they create applications from code to the cloud in order to defend them against complex cyberattacks. The company has offices in Tel Aviv, Boston, London, Zurich and Ottawa.
This article originally appeared here and is reposted with permission.
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